Privacy Policy

Saturday

Petr Klima, the right-shooting winger who wore jersey number 85 for all of his 13 seasons in the NHL, is the best NHL athlete to ever wear the number.

Klima was taken by the Detroit Red Wings in the 1983 NHL draft. He would see his first NHL ice-time during the 1985-86 season, and he would make an impact immediately. In his rookie season with the Wings, Klima notched 32 goals and 24 assists during the regular season.

Goal-scoring became a professional hockey habit for Klima, as over the next few seasons, he would notch 30, 27 and 25 goals. During his fifth season in Detroit, he was traded north of the border to the Edmonton Oilers (along with Adam Graves) after playing only 13 games that year with the Red Wings.

In his first year with Wayne Gretzky's former team, Klima would notch more assists than goals for the first time in his NHL career.

He would return to his goal-scoring ways for Edmonton in the three following seasons, before being traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Klima would close out his NHL career, all while wearing the jersey number 85, continuing to score primarily with the Lightning, but with stints also in L.A., Pittsburgh, Edmonton and back where he started in Detroit.